In January, TrendWatch GA released its 2004 Demographic Profiles report, which takes a 50,000-foot view of the status of the industry, both in terms of demographics and the attitudes of the industry on a variety of key topics, such as business conditions, business challenges, sales opportunities, and planned investments. In it, we see both good news and bad news.

First the bad news. The industry is still stuck in a manufacturing mindset, and this continues to be reflected in the numbers. We've been saying for a long time that, even when the U.S. economy rebounds, rising tides don't raise all boats and many printers will be alarmed that, even when the economy improves, their businesses won't improve to the same extent.

This is exactly what has happened. In our TWGA Business Conditions Index, we see that printers' business conditions have been on a slow but steady upward trend after a steep and precipitous decline between 19972001. And yet, our business challenges data shows that printers are still eyeing the economy as their primary challenger to rebounding profits. Eighty-two percent of respondents to our TWGA Printing #18 survey still see improving economic conditions as the number one sales opportunity for their businesses. This is up 25% from six months earlier and is now at the highest level we've ever charted.